1.2.2 OPC Foundation

OPC is the interoperability standard for the secure and reliable exchange of data and information in the industrial automation space and in other industries. It is platform independent and ensures the seamless flow of information among devices from multiple vendors. The OPC Foundation is responsible for the development and maintenance of this standard.

OPC UA is a platform independent service-oriented architecture that integrates all the functionality of the individual OPC Classic specifications into one extensible framework. This multi-layered approach accomplishes the original design specification goals of:

Platform independence: from an embedded microcontroller to cloud-based infrastructure

Secure: encryption, authentication, authorization and auditing

Extensible: ability to add new features including transports without affecting existing applications

Comprehensive information modelling capabilities: for defining any model from simple to complex